I’m feeling a little down; solution?? Here’s a self-indulgent collection of various wholesome fic lines from the past few years <33
I cast Floof upon ye! ✨
~~~
But Zack, holding the man who was supposed to be the strongest in the military, didn't care. Not at all. He simply took the other in, sheltering him, nestling deep into his neck.
"It's okay, bud…” Zack whispered. "You're safe now."
~
Face buried in the other's charcoal hair, heart pressed against the warmth of a hoodie, Sephiroth allowed himself to smile. He enveloped his best friend and held him close, letting his eyes fall shut as Zack tightened the embrace.
"I missed you..."
They said it in harmony.
~
“Merry Christmas, Seph..." Zack mumbled into his neck, his smile warm and bright as the firewood purring behind them. "Welcome to the Fair family.”
~
"G'night, Seph..." Zack was already drifting.
"Goodnight. And Zack?"
"Yeah?”
"I have a request."
"Go f'rit."
Sephiroth gazed overhead, his emerald eyes glimmering with warm resolve. "Never change."
I love you just the way you are
~
"Partners..." Sephiroth repeated to himself, tracing his finger over the word, feeling the light of Zack's broadening smile beam down on his shoulders.
"Partners," Zack agreed, his tone much more serious now. "You and me, bud. Forever.
~
Seph was broken right now... but he would heal. They both would. Maybe when the cracks were gauzed, they would leave the puppeteers and let the bodies of Nibelheim rest. He could bring Seph to Gongaga, home, where he would live under the care of parents and a brother who loved him dearly.
He would never leave his side again.
As the first winks of dawn smeared across the sky, Sephiroth’s breathing finally began to calm. The ice was thawing from his muscles, melting under the warmth of a furnace, the poison filtering inside of him and purifying into untainted blood.
Thump… Thump… Thump.
"Everything's okay, bud..." Zack repeated, and these were the words that sailed his friend to sleep. "Everything's okay..."
~
As far as Sephiroth was concerned, there was only one appropriate thing to say. It twisted his throat into sandpaper, struggling to mouth a trio of words that had never left his lips, had hardly ventured through his mind. Words he thought he might have known once, but had been taken away, their meaning warped and changed into something nearly nonexistent. Now, someone had championed them; Zack had earned it. His soul sang that it was true, and Sephiroth knew it, too.
"…Zack?"
"Yeah, bud?"
Cocooned in warmth and gratitude, Sephiroth closed his eyes, saying what should have been said without ever needing an occasion.
“I… I love you.”
~
"...Just, always remember that you're you. I think Angeal and Genesis forgot that. So..." Another melancholic smile budded on Zack's lips. "Even if it's just for me, just never forget, no matter what anyone ever says to you: you're still Seph. You'll always be. Winged or crazy-haired or crazy-eyed. I don't know if anyone ever told you that, so maybe I'll just have to be the first."
~
And Zack couldn't hold his any longer. “Seph….!” he squeaked, springing forward and practically gluing his arms around his best friend’s neck. “Seph!”
"Stop that!" Sephiroth tried to bark, but every thread of authority was cut along the way. He was completely powerless as Zack tightened his embrace, their laughter harmonizing into one, a velvet and bubbly song drowning out the rainfall.
"My buddy's laughing...!" Zack repeated, the words still so ethereal as they danced around him. “You’re really laughing!”
~
Sephiroth paused. "…No. I do not have a friend."
The emerald ponds rippled, and he looked over to Zack, still standing in the crowd, the woman nowhere to be seen, watching the boy's eyes widen into gaping blue sapphires . A small smirk budded on his lips.
"I have... a best friend."
He had a best friend. He had a best friend…
Murmurs erupted from the crowd, heads bobbing as people turned to face one another and even the scattered gasp laced between. It was clear that this was not the response they were expecting to receive.
"Who?" the reporter wanted to know, clearly just as stunned.
Sephiroth never unlocked his gaze with Zack’s. His smirk softened into a tender, calm, grateful smile.
“My lieutenant."
~
“...I love you so much…” Zack mumbled into his coat.
The velvety warmth from before sparked all again, a strong heartbeat turned into a swelling throb in the man's chest. There were no barriers in Sephiroth’s mind anymore, making him hesitant. Making him question. Just as they did before, the words left in all their heartfelt, effortless honesty as he held his treasured friend tighter, emerald eyes falling shut.
"I love you too, Zack.”
My hero.
~
For another long swathe of time, silence reigned over the duo. And Sephiroth was left to ponder his best friend’s kind words once again. He let them sink into him like soft layers of balm—let them sink deep into his body, let them knead the aches in his soul… and sank further into the embrace. There seemed to be only one appropriate thing to say. Only one thing was that right.
“Thank you…” Sephiroth whispered.
Zack’s lips budded with a small, teary smile, burrowing deep into the warrior’s neck. “My amazing friend…”
Flash!
Sephiroth tensed and bristled as the room came alight again. His heart jolted—leapt, flared—and Zack made sure it stayed in his chest as he held him tighter.
“It’s okay… I got you, bud. You’re okay.”
The warrior kept his eyes shut, cocooned in warmth and blessed blackness… And this time, his head was silent. Hojo’s voice didn’t echo in his ears; his silent screams of the past didn’t plague him. It all melted away as he melted further into his best friend’s arms.
Listening to the sound of the rain against the window, Sephiroth fell asleep.
~
The boy's face softened, relinquishing his hold on his arm…
To place a warm, ungloved hand on his chest instead.
"I know who you are..." Zack whispered now. "You've shown me. You're Sephiroth. You're kind, and loyal, and would never hurt a soul who didn't deserve it."
He nodded gently towards his hand, pressed firmly over his heart.
"This here, Seph... this is what matters. And you have a good one."
The words still eluded Sephiroth's tongue as Zack held his gaze steady in his own, unwilling to let him go. Gazing right into his eyes, into the inhuman feline slits that drifted in the jade waters like two black daggers... completely unafraid. Completely calm, completely honest. And without a single ghost of doubt.
"You'll always be you..." Zack continued. "And nothing on Gaia will ever change that. I tried telling that to Angeal, but… he didn't listen to me." Something wet twinkled in Zack's eyes, a misty glimmer of plea. Of hope.
"So don't ever forget that... okay?"
~
He opened his eyes again, slowly, the emerald waters tame and vulnerable. The feline pupils round and glistening. "You are... everything to me," he said quietly. "You made my life complete, when I thought it would be shattered forever. You filled it again--with meaning, with joy, with... purpose..." Sephiroth had to fight the smile from sneaking onto his lips, blinking it away. He kept his gaze steady as he continued to hold the blue eyes firmly in his own.
"I repeat myself: you are not Genesis's shadow. You are not Angeal's shadow. Genesis, Angeal... they never brought me coffee. They never shortened my name. They never snuck energy bars into my drawer so I would eat. They never left their doors unlocked for me. They never embraced me, even when they would see me again the next morning." Sephiroth blinked again, fighting again. Only somewhat successful.
"I loved them dearly, but they are not you, Zack. And I am very thankful that you are you.”
~
He felt Zack’s smile press into his shoulder.
“…Seph?”
“Hmm?”
“Thanks… by the way.”
Sephiroth hummed in response, another cozy spark and purr in his chest. “I’m honored to do this with you.”
"No," Zack continued to murmur. “I mean… for everything. For being here, for staying here, for always taking care of me…” He strained his eyes, inhaling deeply, letting his taut muscles relax again as he sank back into his embrace and clutched him tighter and found the words that finally rang right in his heart.
“…My hero.”
~
Zack was no longer resisting the tears—letting the weight of his burdens spill out into his shoulder, letting them flood, letting himself bleed out all the tainted blood that had been flowing inside of him over the past stretch of horrible, horrible months.
“I…” he sobbed, cracking. “I’m...”
“Shhh... it’s not your fault..”
“I… I…”
“…It’s not your fault...”
“I… I just…”
“I know…”
“…Why… why d… id this…?”
“I don’t know…”
“…I miss him…”
“Me too…”
“B… but you’re here…”
“…….I am.”
~
Swallowing, Sephiroth bit his lip, the guilty haze still clouding his mind. “Why did you fight for me?” he choked. “Why not fight against me? Why not try to kill me...?”
Zack’s eyes only softened at the question, taking a moment to compose a proper response. “Why...?” he eventually repeated. “Because you weren’t that creature, pal.”
“But you didn’t…” Sephiroth shook his head, then, realizing the weight of that question, amended with, “how...? How could you know it wasn’t me?”
Another beat drummed through the air as Zack processed the question, thinking long and hard of the response, keeping his forehead pressed against his friend’s and his arms wrapped wrap him until, gingerly, he lifted his bandaged arm, placed it against Seph’s chest, and just listened...
“I... I don’t really know...” Zack cracked another small, honest smile. “Gonna sound cheesy as Hell, but... I kinda just knew... kinda just sensed it, your pain... And then you turn around, at the top of that cord thing, look at me, and I just see all that Evil in your eyes... And I knew that wasn’t my bud...”
~
Eventually, Zack snuggled closer, resting his cheek against his chest, burying his face in the toasty material. “...I felt safer here, you know...” he murmured, his voice drenched in encroaching sleep. “And not just because of the blanket... in case you were wondering...”
A purr, a spark in the velvet fire, and Sephiroth just held him closer, pillowing his own cheek against his dear friend’s hair, strands of silver threading through the black quills.
“...I’m glad,” he murmured in return.
~
“Oh...” Sephiroth chuckled as their laughter began to die down, “I believe we almost forgot the most important affirmation.”
Zack’s smile gleamed brighter than moonshine. “...Yeah? What’s that?”
His own smile calm and content, Sephiroth scooted a few inches across the sofa, looping an arm around his treasured, kind friend as he added, with a swell of gratitude in his heart:
“That I am blessed enough to have the most wonderful friend by my side.”
~
"I'm... I'm never gonna leave you, pal..." Zack whispered, assured; a promise embedded in cement. "I'm... I'm never gonna stop cherishing our time together... Never. I'm never gonna forget how much you mean to me..."
And against the blackness, he felt the silken, feathery weight of Seph's hair falling over him, the comforting, understanding press of his dear friend's forehead against his.
"And I'll never let those memories spoil," Sephiroth murmured.
